Tuesday, December 13 2005 15:49 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

New Delhi: Discipline in thought resulting in objective decisions has largely been compromised in India where political parties are driven by narrow interests with no focus on public good, Infosys chief N R Narayana Murthy said today (Dec 13, 2005).

Also, there is little incentive for legislators to exercise disciplined efforts towards the country's economic development and growth, he said.

In a 13-page speech on "Role of Discipline in National Development", as part of the tenth Field Marshal K M Cariappa Memorial Lecture, Murthy called India's political system a 'zero-sum game' as he warned that economic decisions driven by political compulsions could massively impact long-term growth.

"Political leaders must practice discipline in making intellectually honest economic choices for economic growth," Murthy, the first business leader to speak at the annual Army event, remarked.

A focus on caste and religion, he said, was influencing objective decisions. Legislative debates and discussions are driven more by party considerations than by a concern for public good, Murthy added.

"Such apathy among political leaders towards the interests of the community has significantly affected the oversight of our government policy by our legislators."

The Infosys chief also slammed successive governments over subsidies, saying they were mainly targeted at support groups. "Governments in India prefer to dole out subsidies to their support groups, rather than bringing about overall growth and development in the country," he said.

Murthy described discipline in time management by government as vital for national development but said it did not hold true for India.

"Our Parliament sessions are routinely disrupted and adjourned over trivial disputes, when a single hour of Parliamentary work costs Indian taxpayers around Rs 17 lakh and a parliamentary session costs around Rs 1.5 crore a day," he said.

The Infosys chief also identified bureaucratic red tape as another factor hurting development.

"Approvals that take less than three months elsewhere take three to five years in India. Public officials in India view coming late to meetings and events as a sign of importance, rather than as a sign of inefficiency," he said.

Also, Murthy characterised corruption as a powerful inhibitor to the country's economic progress. Corruption, he said, thrived when politicians and bureaucrats endorsed unviable public projects and inflated costs and selected incompetent contractors.

"Those politicians who proclaim their commitment to improve the lot of the poor would do well to remember that it is really the poor that suffer most in a corrupt society," he added.

While corruption hits small enterprises hard, big businesses use it to create monopolies and increase market share, the Infosys chief observed.

"Hence, every politician, who espouses the cause of the underdog and the poor, must embrace discipline and fight corruption," Murthy said.